


Another Chance: Branching

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance (Pern/DCU fusion) [9]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 17:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With some time and experience under their wings, Sean faces a need to make a new path and discusses it with Dick</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance: Branching

_Fourteen years after Landing, Seven years after First Fall_

Life in Southern had become something of a routine. Fight Thread, find more solutions to an ever-increasing set of problems, work out ways to accomplish the basics of life, and repeat. Through it all, humans and dragonkind alike continued to propagate themselves, to the point that Sean was almost ready to concede to the pressures from the North to establish a Weyr in that waiting volcano near their settlement. 

When a bad Fall over Monaco left him too injured for Thread fighting, he seized on the opportunity of the seasonal cattle drive to talk over his thoughts on how to handle that point. Carenath didn't mind drive duty and the importance of moving the herds from summer to winter pastures was high enough that Caesar Galliani didn't question the Weyr Leader himself heading up the drive. With Dick along for the drive while he, too, recovered from a bad score, maybe Sean could find the right way to see this through.

Shouting from dragon to dragon wasn't an option, but since the cattle couldn't be driven at night, it wasn't a problem to get a meal (delivered via several green weyrlings), bed down with their dragons, and then settle down to talk. 

He was only just getting around to broaching the topic when Dick's head landed -- lightly -- on his shins and bright blue eyes looked up at him. "All right, what's chewing on you?" 

"The north," Sean told him, sighing slightly. "Have to make a call soon, because our caves are starting to overflow, and the season difference with going up to fight Thread, not to mention the time differences.... It's all building to more stress we don't need. Add in the fact they've about split the seams on the Fort complex with their own babies..." He shrugged a shoulder slightly, careful of the side with its healing score.

Dick nodded. "Figured that was it," he said mildly, settling in a little more comfortably. "Only decision to really make is 'Who's going?', isn't it? We know it has to be done." 

"Fort will have to have its own leadership." Sean said it like that should explain all of the problem, in his clipped and tight tone.

"Of cour -- oh, _Sean_ ," Dick murmured, tone suddenly changing as he shifted his weight to get a hold on one hand. "All right. I get it... but have a little faith in your wingleaders, will you?" 

Sean shook his head at that. "I do, Dick. I trust each and every one of them. And I've evaluated them all in my head. Any of them could easily run a new weyr." He could, and would, relinquish control over the new place. He had to. But when it came down to it, he did not like the idea of being the autocrat who chose the next leader. Every queen rider had her own strengths, every wing leader did too. Along with that came weaknesses, and while some pairings had become permanent, some were as fleeting as the flights themselves.

"...okay, so it's not that -- which is good, 'cause I'd hate to have to kick your head in," Dick said, smiling up at him as he said it, easy and affectionate. "So, it's... You don't want to pick, and hell if you're letting anyone else, and how do you make it fair?"

Dick cocked his head at him for a moment, and when he did nod, Dick hummed for a second. 

"Well, who _wants_ to go? Any ideas there?" 

Sean chuckled a little. "I _do_ hear them talk. Nearly everyone has entertained the idea of going, and most of them both want, and don't want, the opportunity to lead." He reached down with his good arm to settle it on Dick's hair, a casual touch that no one but his mate, dragon, and closest friends or children ever got from him. "I've thought about doing it by lots, and only exempting me and Sorka. Each wing leader pull for his wing, let the queens pull for themselves." He made a frustrated growl of a noise. "But that just gets the assignments done, not who leads."

Dick shifted into the touch, incredibly relieved that he had never stopped riding second for Sean and there was no chance of he or Roy getting a lot that sent them North. Not least of which because that would lead to one hell of a fight between the three of them. But that was off the topic, and he chewed at his lip for a moment. 

_What do you think, Sharrie?_

Sometimes their dragons came up with answers they would never have thought of. Shareth rumbled throughfully for a few moments, then said, _The bronze that catches the queen leads the fire-lizards..._

"...what about letting the queens decide it, Sean?" 

"The queens do lead, in the end," Sean said, cocking his head, but not following. "There's a reason we set it up that way; the dragons listen to the golds, so the golds' riders have highest rank. But they don't remember names; I'm not letting them choose the … " He then paused, as Carenath butted in.

 _Not choosing. Deciding._ Carenath flooded his rider with impressions of the wild flights he and Faranth had enjoyed.

"Ahh... we did fly first, didn't we," Sean said fondly, not as guarded when his dragon decided to put sense into him.

"Yeah," Dick said mildly, "you did. And that's not **why** we listen to you, but it makes sense to me and Shareth. Split the queens between here and there, by lot. Then the first queen that rises up North becomes senior queen, and the bronze -- or brown, I guess, unless we want to block the browns from this one? -- that flies her becomes Leader up there? 

"Until a queen rises, whichever bronze is senior can act as Leader for them, yeah?" 

Sean shook his head. "No. They rotate leaders between Falls, so each gets a chance to show his ability," he corrected. "It matters to the queens. If the senior one leads, the queen that rises might be unduly influenced to accept his dragon, thinking it best." 

_Sneaky queens,_ Carenath rumbled in agreement.

"And I'd never block a brown from Flights; if they have the stamina and skill, they can take it."

"Huh. You've got a point there," Dick said, nodding. "That sounds like a decent plan, though. Every one of the wingleaders can do it, let them show it, and then the queen picks. Random chance in who goes, then dragon instinct sets the leadership. What's Sorka think?"

"She was all for sending David, but admitted that was just because David has been right at hand for all of this from the beginning... and she didn't want you to leave us," Sean said. "Because you were her other pick."

Dick snorted, even as he grinned a little. Sorka's faith in him was great, so was Sean's, but hell with that. Southern was his home, his and Roy's, right along with Slade and Dinah. "You did tell her I'd be _between_ ing back home more often than I was there, right?" 

Sean snorted at that. "I can't do without you around," he admitted. "You and Roy have a way of pulling me into check when it gets bad after we lose one, or a Fall is just bad..." He shook his head, looking down at his own scores. "No matter how good we fly, it can make for bad days."

"Yeah... yeah it can." Dick sprawled back against him a little more firmly, hand tightening around his. "We're a good team. 

"Shareth came up with that, I caught the edge of Carenath agreeing... I think it works."

"It will work. It removes any commentary about nepotism, in case David does take it." Sean gave a small smile; he would place his faith on David for this one. "And that will set the precedent. In time, we'll need more. We need to actually find a secondary for ourselves here..."

"Yeah, and well away from us," Dick said, nodding against his leg. "I wouldn't mind it being closer to what's growing up around Slade and Dinah, but there's just nowhere. I mean, they deliberately went for great farmland.

"So... far west, south into the Barrier Range, or?" 

"I don't know. I thought it would be best to get Slade and Drake both to look over likely sites; too many of them are also potential mines, so we need to cooperate on the placement." Sean settled back a bit. "That comes later. First, we settle the northern volcano caldera."

"Yup." Dick nodded, then sat up. "You going to get some sleep, now?" 

"Maybe." Sean gave another one-armed shrug. "Feels strange to sleep open now. Remember when this was all my father's people wanted." It was a mark of who Sean had become that he felt that disconnected from his clan, but he was Pernese, and more, he was a dragonrider now. That mattered most.

"Yeah," Dick said quietly, folding his arms over a knee. "Sharrie's wing is a lot better cover than any caravan, though. See you in the morning, Sean." 

"See you then." Sean tried to get comfortable, knowing he needed some sleep. He didn't protest his lizards settling in around and on his uninjured side to share warmth.


End file.
